1001 Drag Racing Facts. Doug Boyce

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СКАЧАТЬ had just set the AA/FD class record with a 6.57 and was now testing a new transmission. In the final go against the Creitz & Donovan Richard Tharp–driven car, Garlits’ transmission let loose, sawing the car in half and removing a portion of his right foot and breaking bones in the left. Don spent the following year planning his next venture.

      102 By the AHRA Springnationals in June 1970, 13 weeks after the accident, Garlits had recovered enough to crawl behind the wheel of the repaired car to set low ET of the meet with a 6.80 at 224 mph. You can bet every eye was on that first run, and even though Tharp, Creitz & Donovan won the race, every memory of that race, I’m sure, centers on Garlits’ return.

      103 Woody Gilmore and Pat Foster can take credit for building the first successful modern-day rear-engine AA/FD dragster. After watching John Mulligan’s fateful front-engine crash and fire, Gilmore was determined not to have it happen again, and in December 1969, he tested the pair’s first rear-engine car. The dragster crashed during an early outing, but undeterred, Gilmore and Foster went to work on a second car. The new car featured a 223-inch wheelbase and went to Dwane Ong. Dwane debuted the car at Orange County in February 1970 (10 months before Garlits’ first rear-engine car), where he laid down a 6.93 at 214 mph. In August 1970, Dwane’s rear-engine car became the first to win a national event taking the AHRA Summer Nationals. In the event held at Long Island, New York, Dwane defeated Fred Ahrberg with a 6.82 at 217.39 mph to a 6.85 at 221.21 mph.

       Dwane Ong has piloted Top Fuel and AA/Funny Cars and has seen his fair share of on-track excitement. His accomplishments include taking class at the AHRA Summer Nationals four years running, starting in 1970.

      104 One of the most spectacular Top Fuel finishes of all time took place at the NHRA Nationals in 1970. Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, hoping to win his second Nationals in a row, faced Jim “Superman” Nicoll. Nicoll was an all-business competitor who had trailed a red-lighting Big Daddy in the semis to make his third final-round appearance of the year. Prudhomme, who had set low ET of the meet with a 6.43, was trailing Nicoll off the line, but by the 1,000-foot mark, he had gained ground and pulled even. It was going to be a photo finish, but as the cars entered the timing traps, all hell broke loose. At an estimated 225 mph, Nicoll’s clutch let loose in a fiery explosion, sawing his dragster in half. With Nicoll onboard, the rail’s back half with chute extended bounced off the track and over the guardrail, where it finally came to rest in the grass. The front half of the dragster, with a still-turning Hemi, slid across the track, past Prudhomme, and finally came to rest in the sand traps. Miraculously, Superman escaped with little more than a swollen foot and a concussion. Although Prudhomme won with a 6.45 at 230.78 mph, the incident shook him up enough at the time that he vowed never to race again.

      105 Those who watched ABC’s Wide World of Sports saw the Nicoll crash; for many years it was shown during the program’s intro. A scene not caught by the cameras was the unconscious Nicoll being loaded into the ambulance. Jim, strapped to a gurney in the ambulance, gained consciousness before they headed to the hospital and recalled that someone failed to latch the rear doors. Like a scene from a comedy flick, Jim went rolling out the rear doors when the ambulance pulled away.

      106 Bill Schultz, two-time Top Gas champ, opted to field two Top Gas entries at the 1970 Nationals, as well as a Top Fuel car piloted by Gerry Glenn. Although the cars failed to make the final round, Schultz loaned an engine to Jack Jones. Jones took his car to a category win over Roger Rowe with a 7.41 over a 7.57.

      107 With driver Tom Raley, Jim and Allison Lee owned the Top Fuel ET record off and on for close to three years. Their last top time was set in October 1970 at Dallas with a 6.53. They were the dominant East Coast team, having won the Division 1 points championship in 1969 and 1970. The highlight of the Lees’ career, though, has to be the invitation they received to the White House in 1971. Joining the Salute to Motorsports crowd, the Lees’ colorful dragster held President Nixon’s attention throughout the gala event. Quite impressive considering Sox & Martin, Richard Petty, and Mario Andretti all had cars in attendance.

      108 In 1971, Allison Lee’s proven abilities were rewarded when she won the coveted Car Craft all-star team award for top crew chief. Allison was the first woman to hold a crew chief position.

       A trip to the White House in September 1971 saw the Lees’ Great Expectations II draw the eye of President Nixon and Mario Andretti. (Photo Courtesy Brian Beattie)

      109 Garlits debuted his rear-engine dragster on December 27, 1970, at the Sunshine Dragstrip in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 215-inch-wheelbase dragster really started the wave for the current design when it won its first national event, the 1971 NHRA Winternationals. Initial times in less-than-ideal conditions were a promising 6.80 at 220 mph. By the end of the 1971 season, Garlits owned both the AHRA and NHRA elapsed time record and was crowned the AHRA world champion.

      110 The front-engine dragster made its last stand in 1971 at the NHRA World Finals where Gerry Glenn defeated Don Garlits’ rear-engine car. Garlits had been coming on strong with the new ride since its runner-up debut at the AHRA winter meet. He followed his NHRA Winternationals win with a victory at the Springnationals. At the season-ending World Finals, Garlits was ready to take his place as champion, or so he thought. Gerry Glenn, driving the car of Bill Schultz, had run a best of 6.72 to reach the finals and knew the odds were not in his favor. Garlits’ previous round-low ET had earned him lane choice, and if it weren’t for that nasty red light . . . Glenn took the easy win and world championship with a 6.59.

       The evolution of the dragster was showcased around 1970. Schultz & Glenn had a different spin on the sling-shot design. (Photo Courtesy Roger Phillips)

      111 The Schultz & Glenn front-engine dragster differed drastically from any front-engine car before it. Although almost everyone jumped onto the rear-engine dragster design after Garlits’ successful debut, Bill Schultz chose to stick with the front-engine layout, taking it to the next and final step of its evolution. Bill went to work designing a chassis that placed the engine 46 inches forward of the then-current practice. California Chassis Engineering built the chassis and completed the project in four months. When the car debuted in June 1971, driver Glenn stunned the troops at Lions after running back-to-back record 6.41 times.

      112 Talk about unique. The Best Engineered Car at the 1971 running of the NHRA Winternationals was Jim Busby’s dragster. The Junior Fueler was powered by twin Ford Indy engines that Jim picked up for a song after USAC rule changes made the 255-inchers obsolete. Can you imagine the headache of tuning these engines with their 8 cams and 64 valves? Driven by Hank Westmoreland, the rail cranked out a best of 8.27 at 186.12 mph, on 50-percent nitro. With a change once again in USAC rules, the Ford engines were back in. Jim sold the engines, along with spares, back to the same people he had purchased them from and made a healthy profit.

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